In Suisun Bay, 30 miles northeast of San Francisco, there lies a vast ghostly fleet of almost 100 abandoned Navy and merchant ships. These vessels, known as the Mothball Fleet, served in four US wars and are currently awaiting disposal. (Photo courtesy Scott Haefner/Scotthaefner.com)

I still try to catch glances at the old Philly Naval Yard when I go by Philly on 95. (It was a lot easier when I wasn't driving and trying to look and drive 75 on a busy highway at the same time.) Some of the old regulars are gone. The America and the Inchon to the bottom, the Des Moines to the scrappers. New ones, like the old JFK and the Saipan, come to take their place. I once tried to go in with my ROTC ID, but no dice.

Kind of reminds me of the BB 62, the New Jersey my dad was CPO on in WWII and later called back up during the Korean War, floating history with those 9 big 16" guns.

My dad said when they'd put them all broadside and fire the ship would actually move sideways in the water.

New Jersey was decommissioned for the last time in 1991, having earned a Navy Unit Commendation for service in Vietnam and 19 battle and campaign stars for combat operations during World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Lebanese Civil War, and service in the Persian Gulf.

After a brief retention in the mothball fleet, she was donated to the Home Port Alliance in Camden, New Jersey, and began her career as a museum ship 15 October 2001.

Kind of reminds me of the BB 62, the New Jersey my dad was CPO on in WWII and later called back up during the Korean War, floating history with those 9 big 16" guns.

My dad said when they'd put them all broadside and fire the ship would actually move sideways in the water.

New Jersey was decommissioned for the last time in 1991, having earned a Navy Unit Commendation for service in Vietnam and 19 battle and campaign stars for combat operations during World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Lebanese Civil War, and service in the Persian Gulf.

After a brief retention in the mothball fleet, she was donated to the Home Port Alliance in Camden, New Jersey, and began her career as a museum ship 15 October 2001.

I've gone to see her a few times. If you don't want to go aboard, or just don't want to go into Camden, you can see her when driving on I-95 S in Philly.

When I was in HS, I was a member of a group that tried to bring her to North Jersey, near Liberty State Park. Ultimately, this group lost the bid, as the state cited the proximity of the USS Intrepid, the location of the Philly Naval Yard, where she was built, and to try to revitalize the area in Camden.

ABOARD THE USS IOWA – This World War II-era battleship, whose speed, armor and 16-inch guns made its name as "The Big Stick" of the U.S. Navy, began the first leg of its final mission Thursday, departing a mothball mooring in Suisun Bay, Calif., toward a new home as a museum in Los Angeles.

Out of retirement for now: Tugboats tow the USS Iowa, the last battleship from WWII era, away from the naval ghost fleet Thursday to Benicia, Calif.

The Iowa, which represents the peak of naval military power in an era from Franklin Roosevelt to George H.W. Bush, was nudged by tugs from its decade-long spot amid the Navy's fleet of retired ships.

In a carefully timed maneuver, the ship towed at a seasonal extreme high tide, the only way short of dredging that would allow the ship to pass beneath three bridges, one of which didn't exist when it was sent to storage in 2001.

The Iowa, the lead ship of its class of the biggest, fastest and most powerful battleships ever to sail, is also the last battleship to find a permanent spot for retirement. Its sister ships are museums: the Missouri, at Pearl Harbor; the Wisconsin, in Norfolk, Va., and the New Jersey, in Camden, N.J. The Navy no longer has battleships in its fleet.

"This is the world's last battleship's final voyage," said Robert Kent, president of the Pacific Battleship Center, after signing papers allowing the group to take custody of the ship from the U.S. government early Thursday, just hours before the scheduled noon departure.

"There are no more," said Kent, standing on the ship's warped wooden main deck. "This is the close of a chapter, the chapter of battleships."

The Iowa traveled about 5 miles through shallow shoals to the Port of Benicia docks. Along the way, people watched from bridges. Up to 20 smaller boats sailed alongside, people waving. A single-engine propeller plane buzzed the ship.

After an overnight stop, the Iowa is to be towed today to a pier at Richmond, Calif., where it will undergo an exterior scraping, including the hull, and repainting, said Kent, a military historian.

When that work is finished in January, it will be towed down the California coast to the Port of Los Angeles, where the city has provided a permanent spot for use as a museum and, it is hoped, tourist anchor for future waterfront development.

The Iowa, in retirement since 1990, was one of the scores of ships that are anchored and rusting in Suisun Bay, a shallow northern extension of San Francisco Bay. The federal government has reached agreement with environmental groups, which contend the ghost fleet is a toxic waste site, to remove the ships over several years. Most are to be towed away and cut up for scrap.

The Pacific Battleship Center has raised about $5million, including $3million from the state of Iowa, toward establishing the museum, Kent said. It hopes to raise another $5 million.

Jeff Lamberti, a former Iowa legislator and fundraiser for the project, said it has enjoyed bipartisan support in Iowa, even though the state does not stand to reap economic benefit from its namesake battleship's preservation.

"There's a lot of pride in Iowa for this," said Becky Beach, of Des Moines, who has raised money and was on board Thursday.

The USS Iowa had a storied history in World War II, Korea and more recent conflicts, but is perhaps best known today for the 1989 explosion of its No. 2 gun turret that killed 47 sailors and sparked a long, disputed inquiry into the cause.

After first blaming one of the dead sailors for deliberately causing the blast, the Navy was forced by Congress to reopen its investigation. Evidence of the potential for an accidental gunpowder explosion led the Navy to reverse its finding and apologize to the sailor's family.

Veterans who served on the ship hope it will be remembered for other reasons.

Bryan Moss, 78, joined the Navy at age 18, in 1951, and after boot camp was assigned to the Iowa. He boarded it in Los Angeles and sailed for Korea, where he served as a radioman.

"It's a great ship," recalled Moss, who was not on board Thursday but looks forward to seeing it in Los Angeles. He serves on the board of directors of the USS Iowa Veterans Association, which has helped push for its preservation.

"I was old enough to remember World War II and had seen all the pictures and newsreels and stuff," he said. "You don't know what you're getting into. But I had plenty of protection with that big guy," he said of the Iowa.

The Iowa has nine 16-inch, 50-caliber guns, capable of firing shells weighing a ton or more for 20 miles, in three, three-gun turrets. Kent said its speed, firepower and special angled armor were achievements at the time unmatched by other nations.

The Iowa was commissioned in February 1943 and deployed to the Atlantic and then the Pacific. President Franklin Roosevelt traveled on it en route to a conference with British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Soviet leader Josef Stalin.

The Navy installed an elevator and bathtub for Roosevelt, who used a wheelchair. The tub and captain's wardroom where he stayed were the main attractions for the few workers and visitors allowed on board Thursday. Kent said it is the only battleship ever equipped with a bathtub.

The ship weighs 45,000 tons, is 887 feet long and 108 feet wide. It could travel at up to 38 mph and displaces 38 feet of water, leaving only inches to spare in parts of Thursday's journey.

In Suisun Bay, 30 miles northeast of San Francisco, there lies a vast ghostly fleet of almost 100 abandoned Navy and merchant ships. These vessels, known as the Mothball Fleet, served in four US wars and are currently awaiting disposal. (Photo courtesy Scott Haefner/Scotthaefner.com)

But doesn't Mothballing a fleet mean that they are just kept in reserve just in case they are needed?

My father told me a while back about how there are a bunch of US Navy ships in Beaumont that have been pumped full of Nitrogen and had all their hatches sealed up until they are needed